When Tony Caruso is hired to go undercover for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, he has no idea that his life will change forever. He is tasked to track down an Asian ring of smugglers who are killing black bears, elk, and deer. Eventually, he ends up in the southern Cascades in the mushroom fields, where he must fight not only the Asian game smugglers, but Asian gangs from San Francisco and Seattle. As Tony tightens the noose around the smugglers, the case becomes personal. Now he must encounter these brutal killers in the remote forest, where his survival depends on his own military training and his favorite sidekick, Panzer, his giant schnauzer and former German military working dog.
Former Eugene Police Department detective, Paul Adler, has major problems. Officially, he's on an extended administrative leave. Unofficially, he was forced to retire early for conduct unbecoming a police officer. Until he can get reinstated, or until he drinks himself to death, he has taken on private investigations, where his lack of a filter makes him a true Dick. When a woman hires Paul to find her friend, he has a bad feeling about the case. Shortly they find a dead body on the Oregon coast, and now a missing person has turned into a murder investigation. But nothing is as it seems with this investigation. This normally serene city is rocked with murder as Paul unravels layers of deception. Will he uncover the truth before this case kills him?
The county commission has illegally suspended the duly-elected sheriff and installed a young deputy with no tangible investigative experience. When Fitz gets to this former stagecoach stop by the old Pony Express, he immediately clashes with the locals. Soon, Fitz is butting heads with the federal government and established families that want this case to just go away. The major employer in town, a huge mining interest, is right in the middle of his investigation. Then the bodies start to pile up, and Fitz knows he's in for more than he initially thought. The complexity of the case will test his law enforcement skills, and could just get him killed.
